14/1337/COND12/TravelPlan

The travel plan for the West Cambridge Site is available here (click on the Documents tab, direct links don't work).

Notes:

The Cambridge Draft Local Plan 2014 quoted in 2.2.12 provides a dangerously low level of cycle parking provision (2 for every 5) and a dangerously high level of car parking provision (2 for every 3). Cycle parking of 4 spaces for every 5 members of staff and 80% of students and car parking for 1 in 3 members of staff would be more appropriate.

Draft response

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the planning application.

The guidance from making space for cycling may be helpful for the developers in improving the West Cambridge Site.

3.3.1 Contrary to this statement a segregated walking and cycling route does not exist on JJ Thomson Avenue. An inferior shared use path that gives way at every minor junction (including for small car parks) exists on JJ Thomson Avenue. As a consequence of this poor quality of this existing facility, most cyclists choose to use the main roadway shared with the motor traffic instead. Similarly, Charles Babbage Road and Clerk Maxwell Road lack dedicated cycling facilities.

3.4 It should be noted that public transport connections to the WCS are inferior, particularly from villages outside Cambridge, to the extent that the use of them is often not feasible as there are no busses at appropriate times.

3.4.2 Contrary to this statement the actual price paid for the Universal is currently set at £1, not 80p as stated.

4. While the University and the West Cambridge Site's modal travel distribution is relatively good compared with the Cambridge and Cambridgeshire average, it is still not at a sustainable level and improvements are still required.

5.1.2.ii. You probably mean "graduate student" rather than "CDT student"?

6.4.2 To be really effective a bike repair station located beside the cycle parking should also be provided as this will ensure that people know how to find the bike repair facility, including out of hours. In existing buildings on the site, very few people know of the existence of the bike repair kit. Targets should be specific, how often will Bike Doctor visits be or how will this be determined?

6.4.4 Will there be charging facilities for electronic bikes?

6.4.6 There is an existing West Cambridge Active Travel Group (WCAT) which means that the building BUG should be connected with WCAT. An active travel group might be a more appropriate organisation than a bicycle users group as it also covers pedestrians, public transport users, and users of other kinds of cycles.

6.5.3 It would be good to see similar subsidies to those available for train users for bus travel on bus routes other than the Universal.

6.10.1 Specifically, information about how to arrive by sustainable means should be listed before information on how to arrive by unsustainable means on websites supplying directions to the building and it should be explicitly stated that travel by single occupancy private car is not a good idea in Cambridge.

While 16 car parking spaces are specified, the number of cycle parking spaces is not specified. Cycle parking should be designed in according to good standards. Checking against the plans, they only specify 20 cycle parking spaces. This is unlikely to be sufficient as the modal split indicates that there should be 1.6 times as many cycle parking spaces as parking spaces, which would indicate at least 26 would be required, 30 would be better.

University travel plan 4.2: A target of doing worse than we were doing in 2010 is a poor target. Targets should be challenging.

Additionally access to the site from the east via Clerk Maxwell Road is impeded by a dangerous chicane, which in addition to posing a risk to cyclists and pedestrians, also reduces capacity. Similarly access from the north via the Madingley Rise site from Storeys Way is obstructed by dangerous chicanes. These obstructions should be removed as part of these plans.